On Sunday, I birded both the rising and falling tides at the Cupsogue flats on Long Island. There were not a lot of birds, especially in the peep variety but the diversity of shorebirds has increased. I ended up with 17 species of shorebirds (I counted both Willet subspecies as separate entries).
3rd time this season, I have stumbled on a Whimbrel which I always hear first before seeing. Red Knots were new for the season with 2 and 3 Sanderlings were also new on the flats within the last few weeks. The two basic plumage Dunlins continued. A couple of Royal Terns also made brief appearances during high and falling tide. No other terns of note were observed but I spent a considerable amount of time just studying and observing Common and Forster's Terns. The shorebird species are listed below: American Oystercatcher Black-bellied Plover Semipalmated Plover Piping Plover Spotted Sandpiper Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Willet (Eastern) Willet (Western) Whimbrel Ruddy Turnstone Red Knot Sanderling Dunlin Least Sandpiper Semipalmated Sandpiper Short-billed Dowitcher On Saturday, I stopped in at Jamaica Bay to see how much water the rain had dumped on the East Pond. Sadly, the situation continues to be a race against time and mother nature, which it should not have come to. My shorebird count, all seen from Big John's overlook were: 2 Short-billed Dowitchers, 5 Least Sandpipers, 2 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 Semipalmated Sandpiper and 1 Lesser Yellowlegs. A far cry from the previous years where I would be reporting more species variety and thousands of Short-billed Dowitchers. Keeping my fingers crossed that this dry spell will help with water evaporation and see the level down a bit faster. Best, -- 風 Swift as the wind 林 Quiet as the forest 火 Conquer like the fire 山 Steady as the mountain Sun Tzu <http://refspace.com/quotes/Sun_Tzu> *The Art of War* <http://refspace.com/quotes/The_Art_of_War> (\__/) (= '.'=) (") _ (") Andrew Baksh www.birdingdude.blogspot.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
